the Fifth Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Wesleyan Conference, Irish.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or This is a convenient, if not exact, designation of the body of Methodists in Ireland.
I. Origin and History. — It is a curious and interesting fact that the Palatines, a body of German emigrants, were the cause of introducing Methodism into Ireland; and it is equally interesting to know that some of those very Palatines were the originators of Methodism in America. About the year 1709, these emigrants, a set of sturdy Protestants, were ruthlessly persecuted by the Romish bigots under Louis XIV, and compelled to leave their paternal home in Germany. Some thousands, settled in England, others went to America; but about a thousand found a welcome on Lord Southwell's estate in the County of Limerick, Ireland. Each family was allowed eight acres of ground on lease, at five shillings per acre; arid the government, in order to encourage the Protestant interest in the country, engaged to pay their rent for twenty years. The leases were for three lives; at the end of which exorbitant rents were demanded, and the tide of emigration set in about 1760, which led some of the best families to find a home in America; and soon afterwards Methodism was commenced in New York by some of those emigrants.
Methodism was introduced into Ireland in 1747 by a lay preacher named Thomas Williams. He formed a society in Dublin; and during the same year John Wesley made his first visit to Ireland, examined personally the members gathered into fellowship, and found them strong in faith; and wrote respecting those who gathered to his ministry, "What a nation is this! every man, woman, and child, except a few of the great vulgar, gladly and patiently suffers the word of exhortation." Crowds gathered to hear him, including many wealthy citizens. He wrote in his Journal in August, 1747, "If my brother or I could have been here for a few months, I question if there might not have been a larger society in Dublin than even in London itself." After spending two weeks among them, he returned to London, and immediately afterwards sent his brother Charles, and Charles Perronet, of Shoreham, who remained more than half a year in the country reaping much fruit.
At Christmas following, John Cennick preached a sermon in Dublin on "the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes." A popish hearer, ignorant of the Bible, deemed the text a pure Protestant invention, and called the Methodists "Swaddlers" — a title which clung to them for several generations. During Charles Wesley's visit many riotous proceedings were witnessed from the papists opposing the Methodists; people were killed, and mock trials were held, and the rioters escaped, the papists being so much in the ascendant. God owned the words of the preacher. Charles Wesley was firm, so were his followers; that firmness gave courage to the infant society. On the public Green, out of doors, Mr. Wesley often had as respectable a society as at the Foundry; and the power of the Holy Spirit was so manifest that the prayers and cries of the penitents often drowned the preacher's voice. Additions were made to the society almost daily, and the bulk of the communicants at St. Patrick's were usually Methodists led there by Mr. Wesley himself. During that visit Charles Wesley often preached five times in one day; he collected subscriptions, and had a better chapel erected. The Gospel reclaimed the people from error and sin, and persecution bound them together in bonds of affection.
During that visit Charles Wesley traveled abroad into the country. The singing of the Methodists had a most winning effect on the Irish people. A good work was begun in many places, and in some a spirit of transformation was the effect. This was especially the case at Tyrrell's Cross. The people there had been wicked to a proverb; they became entirely changed. In some places the dragoons had to be called for their protection; the soldiers became converts, and were, the cause of spreading Methodism. When John Wesley returned to Dublin in March, 1748, Charles left for England, with the blessings of hundreds of-converts.
Robert Swindells, a lay preacher, accompanied John Wesley, and, being especially adapted for both the work and the people, was made a great blessing. Mr. Wesley began his work by preaching every morning at five o'clock — a plan not congenial to the dilatory Irish; but they crowded to hear him in most places. During this second visit he found out more of the real Irish character, and formed no sanguine hopes of the success of Methodism among the Irish. He tried both persuasion and threatening in his: sermons; but the people, while eating up every word, did not appear to digest any portion. What was Mr. Wesley's discovery in 1748 was the experience of Henry Moore in 1788, and also of Gideon Ouseley in 1828. The same may also be said of the Irish people today. Traversing Ireland for three months, numerous societies were formed, and, half a dozen excellent preachers from England were laboring among them. Charles Wesley returned to Ireland soon after John left, and he revisited the places into which he had introduced Methodism a year previously. In Cork he observed a great moral change had come over the people. Swearing was now seldom heard in the streets, and the altars and churches were crowded with devout worshipers. He preached to ten thousand people out of doors; even the clergy came to hear him. Returning to England, a fierce storm of opposition was raised against the Methodists in Cork, led by a ballad-singer named Butler. The mayor of the city favored the persecutors; and when the Methodists applied for protection, the mayor said in reply that "the law protected the priests, but not the Methodists;" after which declaration, publicly, the rioters became furious. The whole city was excited. Charles Wesley and all the preachers who had been in Cork were charged before the assizes as persons of ill-fame and vagabonds. The judge Soon discovered the nature of the case and the character of the witnesses, and the case assumed a better aspect in court; but the mischief done at Cork that year was not remedied for many years afterwards. The preachers were vindicated; yet two years afterwards, when John Wesley as again in Cork, he was assailed with terrible violence; but God has his own way of defending those who do his work. When the mayor encouraged the rioters, some of the soldiers were converted, and they became stanch Methodists, coming in a body to the preaching services; protection was thereby secured, and the work prospered. Methodism took permanent root in that city; and in 1755 Mr. Wesley was received by the mayor at the Mansion-house; and his visit to the place was then considered an honor to the city.
The first Methodist sermon preached in Limerick was by Robert Swindells, in March, 1749. He lad been in Ireland just one year, and had accompanied John Wesley in his tour, and had learned much of the character of the people. He also accompanied Charles Wesley in his Irish journeys. Swindells had not a gracious reception at Limerick; but, though he had a rabble audience, he preached daily on the Parade, which was at that time a courageous act. In his congregation one day was a young man, educated for the Romish priesthood, who was convinced of sin so deeply that he could not rest away from the Methodist services, and who a few weeks after was converted, and joined the society at Newmarket in 1749. That young man was Thomas Walsh, the first-fruit of street-preaching in Ireland, one of the most pious, useful, and accomplished preachers Methodism ever had in her ranks. Philip Guier, one of the Palatines, was another convert to Methodism at that early period. He carried his religion to the little colony among whom he resided. Mr. Wesley's preachers were invited to preach among them. The colonists greeted them and welcomed them with joy, and soon a society was formed with Guier as the leader of the infant church.
In 1752 Mr. Wesley was again at Limerick, on which occasion he convened the first Irish Conference. There were present John Wesley, S. Larwood, J. Haughton, Joseph Cownley, J. Fisher, Thomas Walsh, Jacob Rowell, T. Kead, Robert Swindells, J. Whitgood, and J. Morris. These, excepting J. Morris, formed Mr. Wesley's staff of preachers in Ireland in the middle of the 18th century. In l1756 Mr. Wesley again visited Limerick, and now for the first time preached in Ballingarr, the home of Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, both of whom were members of Wesley's congregation. Much of the future of Methodism in the world of America depended upon that visit and those sermons, with Embury and Heck as part of his audience.
Wesley says of that service, in his Journal, "I found much life among this plain, artless, serious people. The whole town came together in the evening, and praised God for the consolation. Many of those who are not outwardly joined with us walk in the light of God's countenance; yea, and have divided themselves into classes in imitation of our brethren, with whom they live in perfect harmony." Here are the germs of that Methodism which ten years later originated the first Methodist society in New York, and in America. At the first Irish Conference Mr. Wesley suspected one of the preachers of a Calvinistic leading, of which, he observed, he had as great a dread as he had of the plague. In 1758 Mr. Wesley again held a conference in Ireland, at which fourteen preachers were present; and though the record of its proceedings is compressed within a few lines, yet it is most satisfactory. In 1760 Mr. Wesley was again among the Palatines, when lie "observed the ravages of emigration." How little did he then foresee what immense advantages would follow that emigration, else he would have used other words to describe the events he then witnessed. Popish influence was unsparingly exercised to oppose the progress of Methodism in Ireland. Mobs continued to be gathered, assuming often frightful and perilous severity; while at other times Providence, in a remarkable manner, delivered the worshippers.
Once at Clones, a popish rabble violently assaulted the Methodists in the market place, when suddenly a veteran Scotch military pensioner took his post by a tree in the market-place, musket in hand, declaring he would shoot the first man who disturbed the meeting. The terrible earnestness of the man awed the people into submission; and he kept guard there regularly for several weeks. Ireland was helpful to America in more ways than historians record. Soon after the first society was formed in New York, Charles White and Richard Sause, two Dublin Methodists, arrived in New York; and they were liberal contributors to John Street Chapel. Some years afterwards Richard Sause recrossed the Atlantic, settled in London, and became one of the trustees of Mr. Wesley's chapel in the City Road, where he was interred. Methodism won many converts from popery, as well as from the peasantry of Ireland. Mr. Wesley, sent to that country some of the best preachers he had; and with untiring zeal they labored year by, year, witnessing alternately vicissitudes and progress; but the root of Methodism was fixed in the soil, and there can be no doubt that it saved Protestantism in that country. In 1773 the two families of Embury and Heck, with another Irish family named Lawrence, removed to Canada, and they introduced Methodism into that country. In 1775 Lawrence Coughlan, another Irish Methodist, with two others, founded Methodism in the Norman isles; while Remington, another Irish Methodist, established Methodism in Newfoundland.
Emigration has impoverished Methodism in every part of Ireland; but that emigration has resulted in an amount of extension which never could haven been realized by other means. Methodism was often carried, to and planted in the new homes of emigrants years before it would have reached them by invitation. Ireland has peculiar claims on those countries to which its emigrants have carried their religion. During Dr. McClintock's visit to his family homesteads in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, he went into a humble cabin inhabited by a poor widow. A friend introduced the doctor as from America. Instantly the aged widow's fading eye brightened as in her early days, and she said, instantly, America? Ah, then, sir, do you know our Eliza?" That may be thought to be a simple question; but remembering that there is scarcely a homestead but has its representative in America, such sympathy is easily accounted for. In 1789 Mr. Wesley presided for the last time at the Irish Conference, then composed mainly of Irishmen, those English preachers who had done such good service having been returned to their own Conference. Mr. Wesley's record is worthy to be transcribed. He says, "I never had between forty and fifty such preachers together in Ireland before, all of whom we have reason to hope are alive to God, and earnestly devoted to his service, men of sound experience, deep piety, and strong understanding." As if foreseeing his own death, Mr. Wesley sent Dr. Coke, in 1790, to hold the first Conference formally.
Dr. Coke took that nomination as the yearly president of the Irish Conference, and he continued to occupy that position, in conjunction with John Crook and Dr. Adam Clarke, to the end of his life. In 1790 there were in Ireland 15 circuits, 67 preachers, and 14,000 members. No minutes were published of the early Irish conferences, apart from those of the English Methodists. Historical accuracy makes it necessary to name an unpleasant dispute, which arose in an informal conference held by Mr. Wesley in 1778, to consider and determine a dispute, which had arisen among his societies in reference to the separation of the Methodists from the Church. The Rev. Edward Smythe had been driven from the Irish Church for his Methodist preaching. He had joined the Methodist ministry and had indiscreetly urged the need for separation from the Church. Mr. Wesley heard the arguments, but ruled that separation was not desirable.
He visited Ireland more than twenty times, and nothing gave the Methodists there greater pleasure than to see him and to hear his voice. His last visit was attended by circumstances which were not of an encouraging nature. Dr. Coke had been using his utmost efforts to introduce Methodist services in church hours. This innovation was stoutly resisted by the leading laymen, of whom Mr. Arthur Keene and Mr. Richard D'Olier were the chief. They presented a memorial to Mr. Wesley against the action of Dr, Coke. Letters and memorials followed in quick succession, and Mr. Wesley determined against the proposed change, while Dr. Coke had a considerable following among the people of his way of thinking. The result was, before Mr. Wesley's death, a divided society in Dublin. After Mr. Wesley's death, Dr. Coke was able to urge his opinions with more determination, and they served to alienate from the doctor some of his dearest and best friends in Dublin, and the progress of the work of God was proportionally hindered. In 1790 Mr. Wesley was pleased to know that in Dublin he had one of the largest societies in his Connection, very few being larger. Dr. Coke became the apostle of Ireland after the death of Wesley. He visited the country twenty-five times at his own cost; gave freely of his own money to the preachers and the new erections of chapels; traveled and preached all over the country; and the society advanced rapidly under his superintendence. In 1782, when he first presided at their Conference, they had only 15 circuits and 6000 members. In 1813, after a lapse of thirty-one years, there were 56 circuits and 28,770 members.
All this was in spite of difficulties, persecutions, and resistance almost insurmountable. From 1795 to 1798, during the prevalence of the Rebellion, the sufferings and even tortures of the Methodists, perhaps the most loyal people in the country, were too horrible to relate. Their very loyalty caused the malignity of the rebels; but God was on their side, and had raised up among them two or three ministers whose labors saved the societies. Especially were the untiring labors of the Rev. Adam Averell made a great blessing to the whole country. Educated for the Church, after a few years service in that body, he became a Methodist, and, having abundant means of his own, began to itinerate all over Ireland, much in the same way as Mr. Wesley had done, encouraging the members, administering the sacraments, attending and presiding over quarterly, meetings, opening new chapels, and introducing Methodism into new localities. During half a century that devoted servant of God ceased not to exert all his energies and influence on behalf of Methodism, while he himself, like Wesley, as an ordained clergyman, was permitted occasionally to preach in churches, and without permission preached continuously, often daily in the open air to listening multitudes. In those excursions which he made he witnessed many extraordinary manifestations of the divine power, both during, his sermons and in prayer- meetings afterwards.
During the twenty years of Dr. Coke's superintendence of Methodism in Ireland, Mr. Averell was generally appointed their representative to the English Conference, and for many years accompanied Dr. Coke from Ireland to England for that purpose, the two taking turns in preaching in the towns through which they passed on their journeys When, in 1818, the Irish societies were divided on that sacrament and Church question, Mr. Averell took sides with those who formed "The Primitive Wesleyan Methodists," thought by, some to be the seceders. He was appointed their president, organized their societies, established for them a magazine and book-room, and remained true to their society and interests till his death, Jan. 16, 1847, at the ripe age of ninety- two years. Methodism while struggling with poverty, opposition, and cruelty, yet was often favored in a remarkable manner by Divine Providence.
At the time of the great Rebellion Methodism saved Dublin from being sacked by the rebels, whose intention to march on that city was secretly made known to a Methodist citizen. He at once communicated with the lord-lieutenant, who sent out the soldiers to meet the rebels, and they were defeated and the city saved. Dr. Coke came to Dublin, interceded with the authorities, found that Alexander Knox, Mr. Wesley's great friend, was private secretary to lord Castlereagh, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and through him obtained permission for the Conference to meet in Dublin, when by law more than five persons were forbidden to meet for any purpose, and secured safe-convoys for the preachers to travel. At that Conference it was resolved to establish home missions, in order to provide preaching for the people in their native language. The two missionaries first appointed were James M'Quigg and Charles Graham. The former was both a scholar amid an able preacher. He toiled as a missionary till his health broke down, then devoted his energies to the preparation and editing of the Bible in the Irish tongue, which the British and Foreign Bible Society published. He brought out a second edition, and, while preparing a third edition for press, closed a career of toil and suffering, leaving behind, in that Irish, Bible, a work which was a blessing to thousands after his death. Charles Graham was a man of dauntless Irish courage. At twenty-five his eyes were opened to see his lost condition. He had been both Churchman and papist, but, finding no soul-rest till he found Methodism, his character was soon discovered by Mr. Wesley, who sent him out as a missionary in Kerry County.
Few of the Irish evangelists had more trials than Graham, and few knew better how to meet and conquer them. Bartley Campbell was another who had been an ardent papist, and became an eccentric but enthusiastic missionary. More extensively useful than any who had preceded him in mission work was Gideon Ouseley, who devoted a long life to spreading divine truth in the form of Methodism among the Irish people. The Life and Labors of that eminent preacher and defender of truth, by the Rev. William Arthur, has perpetuated his character and work. He and Graham often traveled together and assisted each other; but Ouseley will always be considered the chief Methodist Irish missionary, which position he occupied for forty years. He labored as hard with his pen as his tongue, and his writings, when published, were at times more helpful to the cause of God than his verbal utterances. The improved religious character of Ireland now is largely due to Gideon Ouseley's labors.
Ireland, however, was not to be so much benefited by these labors as other countries. Methodism would have been mighty in that country had not emigration, continuing year by year for half a century, deprived it of thousands of its Methodist converts. In fifteen years fully ten thousand members were reported at successive conferences as having emigrated to America. Nor was this the only drawback to the progress of the work. In 1801 the English Conference, unable to meet the claims of its own societies, and having to borrow money to sustain its own agencies, was obliged to discontinue the pecuniary assistance it had cheerfully rendered the Irish Conference. Dr. Coke immediately visited Ireland. To provide for that emergency a fund of £1200 was raised by special effort, out of which the debts were paid, and a book-room established as a means to raise money. The institution was of great utility to the cause; but instead of being financially helpful, money had to be borrowed to keep it going, and soon the debts were £8000, the interest on which absorbed all the public collection on behalf of the book-room. The preachers taxed themselves yearly for many years to reduce the debt. Their difficulties from limited resources continued nearly twenty years, and after the division in the society in 1818, the burden on the Irish preachers became so oppressive that the English Conference generously granted them £600 a year from the contingent fund. Still the debt was not cancelled, and in 1828 the Irish preachers again taxed themselves, and by a special effort raised £1850 towards clearing off the £8000 still remaining of debt. During the year following the people raised £7200, so the debt was cancelled. But who can tell the sacrifices the preachers had to make to raise that sum in maintenance of their several agencies? During sixteen years they almost staggered under heavy financial burdens, but they slackened not in their devotion for the salvation of their benighted countrymen.
The great trouble of the Methodists in Ireland was the sacramental question. Unlike their English brethren, they were barely content with their position as a society without full church privileges. When the English Methodists agitated for and obtained permission in 1797 for their ministers to administer the sacraments, the Irish, having Dr. Coke and Mr. Averell so frequently with them to administer the sacraments, did not claim for their preachers generally their full pastoral rights.
After the death of Dr. Coke the members in society had so often to be taken either to Church or to the Presbyterians for the sacraments, according to the leaning of the preacher, that they became greatly dissatisfied, and in 1816 there arose a strong determination in the minds of many of the people to have the sacraments from their own ministers. There was also another party equally determined to abide by the old rule and go to Church for the ordinances. For more than two years the contention continued, both parties being equally determined to have their own way.
The Rev. Adam Averell had long been the apostle of the Irish Methodists, traveling constantly among them, giving his money, relieving their sufferings, directing their official meetings, and administering the sacraments. Several thousands resolved to adhere to the old plan, and at the Conference of 1816, Dr. Adam Clarke presiding, the Rev. Adam Averell and Mr. Tobias were the chief speakers the former for, the latter against, continuing the old plan. Throughout the societies the people were divided, and in the autumn of 1816 a Conference was held at Clones of those representatives who favored the old plan. Through hope of avoiding a separation, there was too much hesitation and deliberation. In 1817 two conferences were held, the second one at Clones, presided over by Mr. Averell, who was unanimously chosen their president. The main body of the preachers voted for the sacraments; the party led by Mr. Averell maintained the original plan. In January, 1818, a meeting of representatives of circuits was held at Clones, when those who adhered to Mr. Averell and primitive custom resolved on a form of general principles, and formed the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Society.
They were not a Church; their preachers claimed no ministerial rank, assumed no ministerial titles, and performed no proper ministerial functions. They preached to the people, and led them to other churches for the ordinances. In that uncertain condition they certainly prospered for a time, and during 1818 over two thousand members were added to them, and in 1819 over four thousand additions were made. This section of the original society was led by Mr. Averell during the rest of his protracted life. In years following they maintained their separate condition amid various vicissitudes, and for just sixty years they endured hardships and privations greater than they need have done. Happily they came to an end at the Conference of 1878. In the address from the Irish to the English Conference of that year is this record, "This Conference has been notable for the consummation of the union with the Primitive Wesleyan Society, so long under consideration. The final discussion of the subject was marked by great thoroughness and good feeling, and the decision arrived at with a hearty unanimity. When the two conferences came together it was a time long to be remembered, and it was evident to all that the spirit of God was eminently in their midst. The only breach which has occurred in Irish Methodism was thus healed."
The parent society was known for some time as the Sacramentarians, because the preachers had voted themselves to the privilege of administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper a privilege they ought to have had from the first. The vote carried with it an immense amount of pecuniary loss and hardship. During the four years of the struggle (1814-18), an annual decrease of members was reported, and in 1817 no less than 7500 retired; but in 1819 they had an increase of over 3500, and the Separatists had an increase of over 4000, so that neither party could complain of apparent want of success. The greatest hindrance to prosperity was the continued emigration from Ireland to America, by which for many years the society lost not less than a thousand members annually. The yearly visits as presidents of their Conference of such preachers as Dr. Adam Clarke, Richard Reece, Richard Watson, Dr. Bunting, Robert Newton, and other leading ministers from England, greatly encouraged the patient toilers. Their financial, privations were very great; but they labored most energetically, though it was up-hill work all the way; yet in 1839, the centenary-year, they numbered over 150 preachers and more than 26,000 members. During the same year they contributed £14,500 to the Centenary Fund. That liberality in their poverty was marvelous, and shows the spirit of self-denial which animated them all. In addition to all this effort, they established schools in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast, and, aided by the munificent contributions of American Methodists, they built and established a Methodist College at Belfast. The Wesleyan Connectional School in Dublin; opened in 1845, was to secure to Methodists in the South a high-class education. The college in Belfast, opened in August, 1868, combines both a public-school and college. In the former, boys are prepared for a collegiate course of training; and in the college two classes of students are received-one consisting of candidates for the ministry, the other those intended for commercial pursuits. Undergraduates of the Queen's University also attend its classes of instruction.
There have been heroic men in their ranks, who have fought and labored with marvelous zeal and energy. Charles Graham was a gray-headed veteran of seventy-four years, who died in triumph in April, 1824. William Hamilton broke down in 1816, but he ceased not to labor until October, 1843, when he closed a ministerial career of fifty-six years, aged eighty- two. Gideon Ouseley was abroad preaching out-of-doors at seventy-four, active as ever, and delivering twenty sermons in the week. He died a victor's death, in Dublin, May 14, 1839, aged seventy-eight. To these may be added Richard Boardman, James Morgan, Andrew Blair, James M'Mullen, John M'Adam, Thomas Barber (who sent Adam Clarke into the ministry), Laiktree, Tobias, Stewart, Waugh, and others. Besides these, how many Methodists from Ireland have entered the ministry both in England and America — such men as Henry Moore, Adam Clarke, William Thompson, Walter ‘ Griffith, and William Arthur, all of whom were presidents of both the English and the Irish Conference, and the transplanting of whom impoverished the Church which reared them! Think also of the ministers from Ireland now in America! But these we have not space to name. Irish Methodists have helped to found their denomination in America, Canada, Australia, Africa, and India; and while thus helping others everywhere with their best men, they were left to struggle on, in their own land, with but little help from any but themselves. Irish Methodists have a roll of honor which will never be surpassed in the Church militant; and in the Church triumphant none will receive greater commendation than those whose names have just been given, and hundreds of others who were their co-laborers and joint sufferers. Rev. William Crook, D.D., has a copious history of Irish Methodism nearly ready for publication.
In 1877, as a preparation for the union with the Irish Primitive Wesleyans, the Irish Methodist Conference first admitted laymen to participate with the ministers in the Annual Conference. This act of grace was done in Ireland one year before it was adopted by the English Conference. In 1878 the Primitive Wesleyan Conference came, in a body to the Conference of the parent society, and both united to form one community, after having had a separate existence for just sixty years. The highest number of members the Irish Conference ever had at one time was in the year 1814, when the agitation commenced for the sacraments. That year the membership was 29,388. The year 1818, when the separation took place, they were reduced to 19,052. The society never fully rallied from the shock that division caused. In 1844, when in their divided state, the parent society numbered 28,409; but having to struggle against the continued drain arising from emigration, when the two societies were united in 1878, they only reached a total of 25,487 members, and at the present time they are below that number. A careful examination of the statistics of the body will enable the reader to understand the difficulty of the preachers in laboring, against such varied discouraging forces. The disruption, which took place in England in 1849, reached Ireland in its paralyzing influence, and the Irish Conference, which in 1849 had a membership of 22,000, in 1855 had been reduced to a little over 18,000. The highest number of members reported by the Irish Conference during the thirty years following 1849 was only 23,500 in the year 1861.
II. Statistics.
Year Ministers Members
| 1816 | 1 | 20 |
| 1817 | 1 | 30 |
| 1818 | 2 | 70 |
| 1819 | 3 | 70 |
| 1820 | 5 | 83 |
| 1821 | 8 | 90 |
| 1822 | 9 | 141 |
| 1823 | 9 | 178 |
| 1824 | 12 | 168 |
| 1825 | 12 | 142 |
| 1826 | 11 | 160 |
| 1827 | 12 | 162 |
| 1828 | 12 | 162 |
| 1829 | 10 | 164 |
| 1830 | 13 | 341 |
| 1831 | 14 | 736 |
| 1832 | 16 | 892 |
| 1833 | 15 | 2,702 |
| 1834 | 19 | 4,311 |
| 1835 | 24 | 7,929 |
| 1836 | 27 | 8,579 |
| 1837 | 32 | 9,313 |
| 1838 | 40 | 9,188 |
| 1839 | 53 | 10,980 |
| 1840 | 51 | 10,921 |
| 1841 | 52 | 11,656 |
| 1842 | 52 | 12,136 |
| 1843 | 53 | 13,140 |
| 1844 | 54 | 12,667 |
| 1845 | 54 | 13,236 |
| 1846 | 56 | 14,040 |
| 1847 | 60 | 15,353 |
| 1848 | 61 | 15,933 |
| 1849 | 64 | 16,469 |
| 1850 | 67 | 17,453 |
| 1851 | 70 | 18,137 |
| 1852 | 83 | 18,938 |
| 1853 | 91 | 19,135 |
| 1854 | 102 | 18,956 |
| 1855 | 116 | 19,897 |
| 1856 | 131 | 21,168 |
| 1857 | 142 | 21,247 |
| 1858 | 154 | 24,461 |
| 1859 | 174 | 28,138 |
| 1860 | 153 | 32,180 |
| 1861 | 159 | 33,964 |
| 1862 | 204 | 25,307 |
| 1863 | 213 | 38,075 |
| 1864 | 215 | 39,695 |
| 1865< Copyright Statement These files are public domain. Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Wesleyan Conference, Irish.'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/w/wesleyan-conference-irish.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.  Ads FreeProfile |